I am very excited to announce that I have officially hired an illustrator for The Train Rolls On (read the book description here). Her name is Christina Wald, and I am really looking forward to working with her on this project. Here is more information about Christina:
Christina Wald is a professional children’s book illustrator specializing in animal and science work. A prolific artist with over 20 years of experience in the field, she has worked with numerous major publishers including Scholastic, Bloomsbury, Hachette, Penguin, and National Geographic, as well as on many smaller-scale projects directly with authors.
Christina runs Cincinnati's weekly Illustrators Lunch and is part of the team that manages Urban Sketchers Cincinnati. She also teaches illustration at Northern Kentucky University and Art Academy of Cincinnati.
Christina’s characters have a whimsical, anthropomorphized quality. She primarily creates traditional, hand-painted illustrations, though she works in a variety of media including digital and vector. She holds a BS in Industrial Design from the University of Cincinnati and is well-known for her work with licensed gaming products including Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Christina loves to combine her two passions: travel and illustration. She lives in Cincinnati with her husband- a toy engineer- and their two cats.
Here are some examples of Christina's artwork:
The panda is a personal painting of Christina's. The parrots were created for a book cover for a reading program, and the otters were created for a flag. The tiger is from "The Little Mango Tree." The Rainforest scene was part of a Scholastic News See Through issue.
After scouring dozens of artist portfolios online, I reached out to Christina because of her incredible ability to illustrate animals. I was confident that, with her skills and experience, she’d be able to bring The Train Rolls On to life. To my surprise, Christina responded to my inquiry right away, was genuinely interested in the project, and could even start illustrating the book as early as this summer. I was shocked…and elated! Everything was falling into place.
I could not be more excited to have Christina on my team. Welcome aboard, Christina...….and the train rolls on!
For more information about Christina or to check out more of her incredible artwork, visit her website here or her blog here. Also, don't forget to check out the incredible cover art that she created for The Train Rolls On here. For more information about my self-publishing journey, check out my welcome blog here. To meet David Miles, a talented book designer and the newest member of our creative team, read my Book Designer Spotlight blog here.